ABSTRACT
There is little agreement among scholars about the personality of Alexander. Alexander was a complex mixture of light and shadows, impulsiveness and calm, selfishness and selflessness, virtue and vice. The royal dynasty to which Alexander belonged traced their pedigree to Heracles. Since Heracles was a son of Zeus, the members of the noble family could style themselves Zeus-born. The process of internalization starts with the parents and other early caretakers. They stimulate the imagination of the developing child, shaping the script that will determine his or her inner theatre; they colour the themes that prevail in that script. This inner theatre probably features a chronic state of emptiness, of aloneness. Plagued by a sense of the meaninglessness of life, hubristic leaders seek comfort in endless admiration from others and in their efforts to control others.
